Original title: Photography maniac Ma Wenhu: The lucky one who met the giant panda 6 times, specializing in photographing various "firsts" in Tangjiahe
Ma Wenhu's eyesight is excellent, he walks around the Tangjia River all day long, the left side of the head, hey, impala, the right side of the head, yo, golden eagle, hold up a camera to take a look, oops, golden snub-nosed monkey ... This is not nothing, the most infuriating thing is that he seems to be born with the natural attributes of attracting wild pandas, working in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve for 26 years, he met giant pandas in the wild 6 times and took photos, and his luck was good enough to go against the sky.
He is 50 years old this year, and since he came to Tangjiahe at the age of 24, he has spent more than half of his life here.
The boys who loved to watch Animal World grew up
Went to Tangjiahe as a field ranger
Ma Wenhu is a native of Qingchuan, 50 years old this year, and has been deeply involved in the front line of yebao for 26 years. A camouflage suit and a telephoto camera hanging from his neck are his daily standard. In 1993, the Tangjiahe Nature Reserve recruited field patrol survey staff. Ma Wenhu, who was 24 years old at the time and did not have any professional background, successfully competed for the job with his familiarity with the local natural environment.
A little boy who has been running all over the mountains since the age of seven or eight to dig wild vegetables and loves to watch "Animal World" grew up and walked into an animal world, and this story sounds like a natural romance. But this romantic story has only just begun.
Tangjiahe is a protected area with giant pandas and their habitats as the main object of protection, in addition to carrying out a giant panda sample line survey once a quarter, it also regularly carries out special surveys of wild animal populations such as twisted horned antelope and golden snub-nosed monkey, and stays in the mountains for a month.
It's not a thing. Ma Wenhu ran in the mountains all day, and even if some remote and dangerous sample lines were located, he also took the initiative to apply for completion. In 2007, Taiwan cooperated with Tangjiahe on a black bear conservation project. Huang Meixiu, a Taiwanese expert, knew that Ma Wenhu had a wealth of experience in the field, so he left a video camera for him to photograph the rare wild animals and plants found during the field investigation.
Tangjiahe "Darling"
In 12 years, he met 6 giant pandas in the wild
In July of that year, Ma Wenhu and his colleagues were observing the life of the horned antelope at Annulus at an altitude of 3,500 meters above sea level in The Stone Dam of the Tangjia river, when they saw a round black and white object from the telescope. "A giant panda is sleeping on a tree on the opposite hill!" Working for 14 years, this was the first time he had observed giant pandas in the wild. He immediately carried the camera and climbed with his companions toward the hillside where the giant panda was located. Because they were afraid of disturbing the giant panda, it took more than two hours for the group to reach the tree where the giant panda was located.
The giant panda slept soundly, and Ma Wenhu quickly found a good location to hide. Until the tape was finished and the battery ran out, the giant panda slowly descended the tree and slowly disappeared into the jungle, and he remained in place without end. "At that moment, I made up my mind to buy my own camera and record these wonderful moments I encountered in the wild." Soon, Ma Wenhu had his first camera, the Nikon D90. It was also from that time that the camera was "worn" on Ma Wenhu like clothes. It is also from this year that he has become more and more "easy" to encounter giant pandas, and as of 2019, he has encountered wild giant pandas 6 times.
The "Photographic Maniac" among the Rangers
Harvesting Tangjia River species to shoot various "firsts"
"When I first started with wildlife photography, I was still entertaining myself, wanting to record these wonderful moments and wait until I was old and have a good memory. It turned out that the value of these photos was much more than that. In 2014, Ma Wenhu came across an otter bathing in sunlight on a rock by the river in Songguangliang, Tangjiahe, and he immediately recorded this precious picture with his camera. This is the first time that otters have been photographed in the reserve. This photo not only won the bronze medal of the National Geographic Photo Contest that year, but also opened the Tangjia River's conservation survey of the Eurasian otter, an endangered species.
The word "first" seems powerful, but for Ma Wenhu, in the land of Tangjiahe, he has won too many "firsts". The first shot of the black woodpecker, the first shot of the brown-backed black-headed plover, the first shot of the chestnut-backed short-winged plover, as well as the Peacebird, the blue short-winged plover, the red-necked webbed sandpiper, the spot-winged wren...
In order to adapt to the needs of wild shooting, Ma Wenhu constantly upgraded his camera and lenses, and his relationship with wild animals has become deeper and deeper. In addition to giant pandas, he has photographed more than 40 species of golden snub-nosed monkeys, horned antelopes, black bears, ocelots, civets, hairy-crowned deer and other mammals, and the total number of birds in the reserve has reached more than 300 species, and the photo inventory has reached 2 t.
"While watching and listening, you also have to hold a camera and a telescope in your hand, and if you can't see clearly with the naked eye, you can immediately use the telescope to observe, and if you haven't taken a picture, you have to capture it at the fastest speed." Speaking of photos, the photography maniac Ma Wenhu has his own experience, "Speed and professionalism, everything is based on speed and professionalism." Cover news reporter Yang Xue
(Editor-in-charge: Zhang Huawei, Gao Hongxia)